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I too am a member of a forum where members have become friends, then partners then married. Sadly some members have died, one of my friends died recently and I was upset for a few days. Even if I suddenly decide to sell my websites and go into, lets say the property business, I would still check back occasionaly...

Pardon the morbidity of this post...
Also this post pertains to affiliate shopping sites like AWS and the various others out there (like mine, www.discount-shoes.info)

I think affiliate marketing will be around for a long time.
As the years go on, the people who have not and will never use the Internet will die, bringing in the new generations who will of course be spoon fed the Internet in school. The online shopping scene is going to continue to grow. For many years to come, there will still be ways to "hide" links to affiliate sites from search engines through non-spammy ways (many people do this, its legit). So even if search engines start instantly banning sites that link to places like *www.qksrv.net*, this can be avoided.

When will affiliate marketing be really dead? Not for many many years. What is for sure?

- Affiliate sites will need to offer lots of unique and interesting original content. This will become more and more of a neccessity over time.

- Affilite sites will need to increase their product range in order to keep their income steady. As the years go by, it will get much harder to keep your profits growing or at least hold your average.

Sites like www.movieforums.com have it made... A community focused on movies? How awesome is that. If you can grow a community centered around a consumer product...that's golden.

The online shopping part HAS to grow. In years to come people aren't going to be going out shopping on a Saturday, they will do everything online in a fraction of the time. Surely this means that some of the large retailers will release affiliate programs.

Yep. I dont have the %'s memorized, but I believe CNN or MSNBC had some statistics from last Christmas (yes, i said christmas not holiday season ) on how many people shopped online, and how many went out to stores.

And the only % was EXTREMELY LOW! like less than 10% shopped online. If anyone recalls this news or the %'s, post.

Originally posted by YodaPeople make genuine emotional connections to message boards and the people in them.

Indeed. Quasi-off-topic but it reinforces the point-

Back in 2000 I ran a popular message board. The board had a good group of regular members with steady growth. Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances it had to close down after only 6 months online. Within days of the closure the regular members banded together and started up a forum on ezboard, and they were back together that week without missing a beat.

While the board was operational I was able to meet a handful of the members here in New York and elsewhere. One member even let me stay with her and her boyfriend for two days while I was touring Texas; they took me to all the hot tourist spots of their town... how great is that??

About a year after the closure I received an email from a former member informing me she had married another former member. Across space, time, 6 states and a time zone they found each other via the message board. She personally thanked me for giving her the opporunity to meet her future husband. I even got a handful of wedding pictures. Ah... I should have requested they name their first boy after me...

I love forums... My literature forum is only 1 & 1/2 weeks old but is growing fast, I've had loads of comments on how friendly it is etc. I'm growing friends with some of the members that I didn't know already... Perhaps I will meet someone over it?

I met my current gf on the net. I've been with her for over 3 years now and we're living together. That's partly why I wanted to start a dating affiliate site. Not that I met my gf using a dating service! I met her on IRC.

Also, talking of affiliate sites... I'm certain online dating is something that will grow big time in the future (even more so than now). Can't wait until I get the site secured in the search engines. It should be good!

Another thing concerning affiliate sites is that, whilst a person in the future may directly use a search engine to find "a product" such a froogle, there will always people wanting to search for comparisons, reviews and details about particular products. That's a harder aspect for the search engines to cater for directly because there are so many variables that could be involved - not simply: name, price, category.

Originally posted by chromate I met my current gf on the net. I've been with her for over 3 years now and we're living together. That's partly why I wanted to start a dating affiliate site. Not that I met my gf using a dating service! I met her on IRC.

Also, talking of affiliate sites... I'm certain online dating is something that will grow big time in the future (even more so than now). Can't wait until I get the site secured in the search engines. It should be good!

Another thing concerning affiliate sites is that, whilst a person in the future may directly use a search engine to find "a product" such a froogle, there will always people wanting to search for comparisons, reviews and details about particular products. That's a harder aspect for the search engines to cater for directly because there are so many variables that could be involved - not simply: name, price, category.

I met my wife online. She used to work with 2 people who met their husbands online. Just to get completely off topic.

I met my wife when web pages were all gray with black text and the information on them was mostly true. But we didn't "meet" online.

Regarding the % of business done on the internet, I think it will certainly continue to grow, but don't discount the need for instant gratification and the ability to see and touch things. It's the same reason books and newspapers will never go away.